TOP 10 Irregular Verbs

Here is the list of the Top 10 irregular verbs in English (and list of Top 10 irregular verbs in PDF). This list contains the 10 most commonly used irregular verbs.

While regular verbs form the past tense by adding the ending -ed, irregular verbs behave differently and need to be learnt by heart.

We also prepared lists of the Top 5, 20, 25, 30, 50 and 100 irregular verbs.

Or you may be interested in lists of the TOP 5, 10, 20, 25, 30 and 50 regular verbs.

Each row contains an infinitive first, followed by the simple past (V2) form and the past participle (V3) form. For more detail click on the verb in the infinite form.

Regular verbs have the same simple past (V2) and past participle (V3) form, unlike irregular verbs.

What are irregular verbs?

Irregular verbs are verbs in English that do not follow the regular pattern of verb conjugation, which involves adding “-ed” to the base form of the verb to form the past tense and past participle. Instead, the past tense and past participle forms of irregular verbs have unique spellings and pronunciations that do not follow the standard pattern.

For example, the base form of the verb “go” becomes “went” in the past tense and “gone” in the past participle, which does not follow the regular pattern of verb conjugation. Other examples of irregular verbs include “eat” (past tense: “ate”, past participle: “eaten”), “buy” (past tense: “bought,” past participle: “bought”), and “see” (past tense: “saw,” past participle: “seen”).

Irregular verbs can be challenging for non-native speakers to learn because they require memorization of the unique forms for each verb. However, many irregular verbs are commonly used in everyday conversation, so it is essential to understand their usage and pronunciation to communicate effectively in English.

List of 10 most common irregular verbs in English

Infinitive	Simple Past	Past Participle
be	was/were [wɒz] / [wɜː]	been [biːn]
come	came [keɪm]	come [kʌm]
do / does	did [dɪd]	done [dʌn]
get	got [ɡɒt]	gotten [ɡɒtn]
go	went [went]	gone [ɡɒn]
have / has	had [hæd]	had [hæd]
know	knew [njuː]	known [nəʊn]
mean	meant [ment]	meant [ment]
see	saw [sɔː]	seen [siːn]
think	thought [θɔːt]	thought [θɔːt]

We have prepared a complete list of irregular verbs in English. It contains more than 600 verbs, sorted by difficulty. Or look at the special article on verb forms.